"Occupy Rochester:" Supporting other "occupy" movements before local cameras.

The “occupy” movement began late last year in New York City, when activists sought to express their dismay with the socio-economic policies of the United States by camping out at Wall Street. For their purposes, the choice was at least appropriate: Wall Street is the center of America’s wealth. “Occupy Wall Street” also birthed phrases such as “Corporate Greed” and “The 99%.” That seemed to be its only major accomplishment, apart from annoying people who worked on Wall Street and other passers-by. It changed nothing.
New York City is one of the largest cities in the world; it is THE largest city in New York State. Almost half of the entire state’s population lives there, concentrated in a very small area. Anything that happens there gets media attention, at least for a short period of time. Especially since the “Big Apple” also contains the state’s highest concentration of nuts, who sought to hog the camera and get their fifteen seconds worth of fame.
Most US citizens are extremely apathetic and easily bored. “Occupy Wall Street” soon failed to be amusing, and faded from the network news broadcasts. Newspapers, if they printed anything about “Occupy Wall Street” at all anymore, buried the articles deep within their pages. The novelty had worn off.
However, it did inspire activists in other parts of the country to mount their own “Occupy” events. Tepid and ersatz copies of a flawed original.
Just like in Rochester.
First of all, I believe that the core of the “Occupy Rochester” activists were sincere in their undertaking, if their goals were a bit muddled and fuzzy. Rochester is a small city, its population largely unconcerned about changing anything ( judging by our election results ) and really no longer has a vibrant, thriving downtown where protesters can congregate. Even so, “Occupy Rochester” chose to plop itself on Washington Square Park, off the beaten path and hardly very visible to Rochester as a whole.
( Those of us who were student revolutionaries and members of SDS back in the wild and woolly days of the late sixties and seventies knew high visibility was an important part of promoting a politcal and social agenda. It’s all covered in “Political Activism 101.” )
Nor did it attract more than few dozen “occupiers.” Rochester’s radicals were unwilling to put their money, or their comforts, where their mouths were. And that also goes for the people who sought to take over the movement to promote their own agendas.
Given the location, and left to itself, “Occupy Rochester” would have quickly faded from the city’s consciousness.
They needed martyrs to keep themselves in the public eye and the mayor who is promptly provided them.
Most people in the area didn’t care if the occupiers wanted to camp out in the cold without sanitary facillities. I daresay most people snickered about it.
However, rather than allow this protest to fizzle out of its own accord, the mayor who is sent the police to arrest the occupiers who wouldn’t leave the park after the legal curfew of 11 PM. He wanted to show how “tough” he was, especially since he won his office in a disputed “special election” with less than 50% of the vote. The mayor who is made himself look foolish, especially after he relented ( a few days after the arrests ) and allowed the occupiers to remain. He looked even more foolish after the arrests were thrown out of court.
This made the martyrs “Occupy Rochester” needed to give them more press coverage, despite the insincere protests of police and mayoral brutality from some of their supporters and leaders. THEY knew it had to be!
And it made “Occupy Rochester” look more important…at least in its own eyes!
So, “What’s it all about, Alfie?”
God alone knows.
“Occupy Rochester” has pretty much faded from the media, although some people are still camping out in Washington Square Park. Supposedly, they will depart sometime in March, so the park can be re-landscaped and grass seed planted. Apparently there is a “power struggle” among the “leadership” of “Occupy Rochester” ( although it is hard to dignify a squabble between a few dozen people with that term ). These leaders have their own agendas, and the one becoming most obvious is that of the Green Party. One can see that when the “occupiers” make their demands heard before Rochester’s scarcely-attended city council meetings. Which is very touching and dear, since city council has long since ceased to be accommodating to anyone but the unions and business interests that contribute so heavily to their re-election campaigns.
So, where does that leave us?
Frankly, nowhere.
The “Occupy” movement nationwide made no real changes in anything in America, except to amuse some people and bewilder others ( and to issue manifestoes of support to the various other “occupy” groups ); the Tea Parties in New York State, though somewhat better organized and better attended, had the same effect. It got no intrinsic support from anyone ( unions claiming to support it never went on strike on its behalf, and politicians and politcal wannabees speaking a good show didn’t get out there and freeze their keesters off ). It didn’t gain the support of the vast majority of Americans, or even the small minority of politcally active citizens.
Well, at least a few people got to let off some steam, even if the vast majority of Americans never knew what the point of all of this was. And “occupy” never made it clear how they would accomplish anything, a fatal flaw in any popular movement.
In Soviet terminology, “occupy” would be seen as “Romantic self-indulgence.”

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Rich Gardner has been writing about the history, culture and waterways of Upstate New York for years. His articles have appeared in U.S. and Canadian publications, and one book, Learning to Walk. He is an alumnus of Brighton High School and SUNY Geneseo. He operates Upstate Resume & Writing Service in Brighton and recently moved to Corn Hill, where he is already involved in community projects. "I enjoy the 'Aha!' moments of learning new things, conceptual and literal. City living is a great teacher."

Ken Warner grew up in Brockport and first experienced Rochester as a messenger boy for a law firm in Midtown Tower. He recently moved downtown into a loft on the 13th floor of the Temple Building with a view of the Liberty Poll and works in the Powers Building overlooking Rochester’s four corners as Executive Director for UNICON, an organization devoted to bringing economic development to the community. He hopes to use his Rochester Blog to share his observations from these unique views of downtown.